The present disclosure relates to a locating appliance. In particular, the present disclosure relates to a locating appliance configured to detect an object enclosed in a medium.
Various locating appliances are known for sensing an article concealed in a wall. The article concealed in the wall may be a water, power or gas line, for example, which must not be damaged when working on the wall. On the other hand, the article may also be a wooden beam or another supporting structure, and the work needs to be carried out in the region of the supporting structure.
In order to trace a metallic article, such as a steel water pipe, within the wall, a magnetic field is usually produced and a check is performed to determine whether the article influences the magnetic field. If the influence exceeds a predetermined amount, the article is sensed. A nonmetallic article, such as a wooden beam, can be detected by using its dielectric properties. To this end, an electrical field is produced and a check is performed to determine the extent to which the article influences the electrical field. The article is sensed if the influence exceeds a predetermined amount. If the article is a conductor carrying current or voltage, it is also possible to detect an electromagnetic field surrounding the conductor. Articles which are neither metallic nor have easily detectable dielectric properties, such as a copper power line encased in plastic, can be sensed in this way.
A fundamental problem for locating appliances is that they tend to produce false measurements when a sensing sensitivity is increased. The locating appliances therefore need to be calibrated by a user in the region of the measurement location. The calibration can render the measurement process complex and ambiguous.
The disclosure is based on the object of providing a sensitive locating appliance which is easy to use.